Tuesday, March 8, 2016

The above video gives a good explanation of what Tilt and Shift lenses do and when and how to use these lenses effectively. You can correct the (perspective) distortions when using normal lenses for those situations as explained above using Photoshop but you lose more than 40% of your pixels when you do so. It may also be more inconvenient if you often take those kinds of photos and therefore have to tweak often using Photoshop, rather than using the tilt-shift lens straight up.

Thursday, February 4, 2016

ORANGE OCEAN SUNSET: THROUGH THE LOOKING GRASS with Cool, Ambient Music

THROUGH THE LOOKING GRASS(A MANDARIN-ORANGE, OCEAN SUNSET)

With 3.17 Minutes Ambient Music. Use as Reflective, Meditational or to Chill Out, enjoy.

THE SETTING

After a scorching and perfect summer's day, the Sun finally sinks below the horizon, not as a fiery yellow orb, but as a mellow, orange glow-ball. It struggles with the eclipse of the Night to stay on the horizon, resulting in a prolonged, mandarin glow right across the whole horizon and high across the sky (although the extent of the latter is not evident in the footage captured with this camera model), long into the night.

This is a rare and beautiful event seen through dune grasses (shared with the night bugs!). The protracted drama played out between the Sun God and Lady Night is reflected in the music. Enjoy!

THE STORY: Lament of the Seafarer's Wife
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All the boats are in except yours...
Storm clouds gather as dusk falls...
I hear the seagulls cry as they reach the shore.
When will you be returning?
The little ones are waiting...
For you to come thro' the door...
To finish that bedtime story...
When, oh! when will you be home?

This video tells a story without words - the images, music, mood and title says it all.

Monday, January 25, 2016

There are 3 photo covers of "The Skateboarder" and 1 video in this blog post. While I did not use the 'failed' skateboarding clips (riders falling off their boards) in the video below, they did present some good action shots from which to create the 3 colorful, digital montages below using different art brushes / filters. These filters allow me to stylise and texturise the montages to simulate canvas and street art. I then have the option of adding that to my collection of photos for this blog or use them as thumbnail covers for or within the YouTube video, or do all of the above, etc.

STREET SKATEBOARDING: The Skateboarder - Digital Photo Cover 1

TIP 1: Don't be too hasty to delete your or
their 'mistakes' or the blooper shots especially if you have not taken
too many stills while you were shooting a video. Try recycling these
first, especially if they are clear and high resolution images but are
not the cool pics you or your subject envisioned. You may be able to
convert them into works of (digital) art if you experiment a little. You
don't need Photoshop (although that would be great) and can use any
free and simpler, photo editors instead.

STREET SKATEBOARDING: The Skateboarder - Digital Photo Cover 2

TIP 2: When taking street photographs, have your camera ready at all times
and keep shooting even if you think the shots are not ok or rapidly
resume filming if you have to stop prematurely. Take still shots as
well. You have to move your camera to follow the action so keep your
hand as
steady as possible if you have to pan or follow a sharp turn in
direction when filming.

STREET SKATEBOARDING: The Skateboarder - Digital Photo Cover 3

This will improve with practice but it helps if
you can find a hand-rail, etc. to rest your arm. Also find shelter if
the
wind is very strong. Your clip will tend to be shaky if you are in the direct path of strong head winds. You can fix this to some extent when you edit your clip. During editing, don't hesitate to cull out the most shaky parts before you stabilise the rest of the clip.

When you remove the worst
parts, the rest of your video clip will be of higher quality after it is
stabilised, which you can achieve by using the online Youtube Video Editor (hint: use the trim tool or / and split clip tool if necessary). The stabiliser 'averages' the shakes, so to speak, so the less deviation (ie. smaller variation in the magnitude of your shakes) the better the overall quality and your end-result.

STREET SKATEBOARDING: The Skateboarder -THE VIDEO

TIP 3: So delete the shakiest parts of your video clip BEFORE you stabilise the
rest for a better, final video result, or eliminate very shaky clips
altogether if you are reconstituting a series of shorter clips into a
longer, final videousing the online, Youtube Video Editor. The latter is especially useful if you are uploading and posting videos (or photographs from which you can later process into videos) on the fly from your device.

Beautiful images of the tree with dense clusters of small and pretty, crimson-red flowers and 2 minutes of relaxing, Zen music to calm and soothe your body, restore and uplift your spirit.

This model of Samsung (Galaxy Trend Plus) does a great job when taking landscape scenery especially in bright light but tends to overexpose and to over-represent the yellow hues for nature or plant studies.

I have deleted all but the best shots which tended to be slightly underexposed when taken closeup and out of direct, bright light. It is easy enough to edit to bring out the truer colors this way. Discard those that are overexposed to save time and energy! However given the price this phone-camera is a great perfomer for both stills and video.

Rays
of sunlight hit the ocean waves at a certain angle and at a certain angle of
view plus the rippling effect of very strong winds ruffling the surface
of the shallow sea aross a sheltered part of the marina - the Trifecta
factor - created a magical spectacle of sparkling lights scintillating
on the surface of the sea, like a gigantic, effervescent drink
(especially true for the first and last parts), Great to stumble upon, capture
and share such a beautiful landscape and seascape. Enjoy!

Monday, January 11, 2016

HARBOUR REFLECTIONS - Street lights of the Esplanade are reflected in
the twinkling Harbour on a fine, clear night with the bonus of a calm
sea (the Trifecta factor), creating a shimmering and magical, seashore
Wonderland and Nightscape.

3.5 minutes of relaxing, ambience music with
ocean sounds, water reflections and night ocean scenery.